It would be "political suicide"

Municipal-owned utilities like Lubbock Power & Light can opt out or in to the state's new deregulated electric plan.

Today, odds are that LP&L will opt out, said Alex "Ty" Cooke, a Lubbock city councilman.

"I don't believe any municipality would opt in whether they want to or not," Cooke said. "I don't think it would be politically feasible."

If the City Council surrendered authority over LP&L to regulators in Austin, it would be political suicide, he said.

"The only reason I see for formally opting in would be if we wanted to get outside our certificated territory to sell electricity," he said. "But LP&L was able to grow their system within the certificated area and we can still maintain local control.

"To a large degree, you lose local control by opting in."

Certificated territories are boundaries designated by the state that electric companies operate within. State regulations require electric companies to stay within those boundaries, leaving room for other competitors in given geographic regions.

The Texas Legislature passed the deregulation law during the 1999 session, and though it is designed to create more competition for electric service, thereby driving down price, it will benefit primarily consumers in the territory encompassed by ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Cooke said.

ERCOT's territory encompasses all of Texas except the Panhandle, El Paso, and one tiny region in the southeastern part of the state that includes Orange and Beaumont.

"We're outside ERCOT," Cooke said. "And our prices are already some of the lowest in the state. And deregulation is going to drive up the cost for consumers in Lubbock.

"I've said it and said it; deregulation is not for Lubbock."

Under the law, city-owned utilities can choose to participate in deregulated retail competition, but they are not required to, said Terry Hadley, spokesman for the Public Utility Commission of Texas.